Timeless is the tale of sex and suppression. And this drama from Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca offers no shortage of players looking to put the kibosh on lust. There's a mother, snuffing out promises of marriage and passion for her five daughters following their father's sudden death. There are the sisters, who progressively warp into sex-starved monsters, drooling and jealous. And finally, the great male manipulators, unseen perhaps because they represent more than just themselves—a whole patriarchal system, stifling in its detached greed. García Lorca, a gay poet and playwright, knew a thing or two about tightly wound societies. Much of his work was written during the first part of the 20th century, prior to his murder by Franco's Nationalists at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The House of Bernarda Alba is his final play, completed in June 1936, just months before García Lorca was executed and his work banned. He was just 38, and never got to see the play staged. Continue reading >>